Imagine you’re standing at an upstairs window looking down into your garden, your street or, if you allow your gaze to wander a little further, that part of the neighbourhood you like to call home. Just dwell on the image briefly so as give it enough time to sink in. Now imagine you’re looking out of that same window and the first thing you see is water. Nothing but water. Oh, there are still the street lamps and staunch iron lamp posts standing smartly like soldiers in straight rows along what until just a few moments ago you would have said was your street, and there’s the odd semi-submerged tree and the random traffic sign sticking out almost comically from the floods, but everything – yes, everything – else that you love and have grown used to, everything that is under the height of say your front room ceiling, has gone, simply disappeared under a deep, sweeping mass of sometimes muddy, sometimes swirling, all-engulfing water.
It is an image that strikes a chord of terror and chills your heart. And it is an image that over 2 million people in 20 of Thailand’s 76 provinces, or to put it differently a mind-boggling third of the country, are being confronted with this very minute.
The floods did not come as a surprise. They don’t always do. It was expected that the monsoon rains, which were exceptionally heavy this year, would cause canals and rivers to swell and that flood defences would be breached and that banks would burst.
But when the unstoppable water masses, which according to experts amount to over 100bn cubic metres of water, kept on coming, carrying cars, buses, drums, debris and everything and anything that obstructed their path, their arrival still came as a shock. And you, dear reader, would only begin to able to grasp the sheer scale of the devastating floods if you yourself were caught up in them and you yourself were a victim of the flood.
It is thought that those affected will have to wait up to a month before the water finds its way to the sea and water levels start to recede. Many of Bangkok’s residents have been evacuated and brought to emergency centres using military trucks, boats or makeshift rafts, while hundreds of thousands have fled to resorts along the coast as they follow the fate of the city’s capital and those who have chosen – or are forced – to stay behind.
There have been sightings of snakes, rats and even crocodiles which have escaped from flooded crocodile farms and there have also been reports of crocodile attacks on children, as they play or wade waist or chest-deep through the water to get to higher ground. In addition to these harrowing conditions, which can surely only be worse when night falls over the stricken areas, there is a desperate shortage of bottled water and foodstuffs that are normally an important part of the Thai population’s staple diet. This and the need for further humanitarian aid in the form of medication because of the high risk of mosquito bites and waterborne illnesses will put a huge strain on aid organisations, volunteers and the Thai government which will be needing in excess of £16bn to rectify the damage.
Such news and images put everything back into perspective. We realise, when all is said and done, how fortunate we are, and we realise that we need to be prepared. But we need to be prepared not only for when the floods come – and come they will, as they did last year when areas as far apart as Cornwall and Merseyside were struck by disaster – but also for the aftermath when the water has retreated and the big clean up begins.
The Trotec Group is a network of internationally-operating companies that specialise in providing quick and efficient help and effective solutions after flooding and water damage.
With over 20 years of experience in the field and thousands over thousands of satisfied customers in the private, industrial and commercial sector, we are able to supply business customers, dealers and end-users not only with the expertise and know-how that is necessary to deal with such extra-ordinary situations but also a wide range of products which can be bought or hired out and which are designed to dry out homes, houses and buildings to prevent further flood or structural damage from occurring after the water has receded and returned to its natural bed.
The products, which include a huge variety of building dryers, dehumidifiers and fans, are all available at extremely short notice and can, as a rule, be sent to anywhere in Europe, for example, in less than 24 hours and flown by plane to any part of the world in 1- to 3 days.
Find out more about the Trotec Group, the services and the products we provide by visiting our information website www.flood-damage-services.com or see what we have to offer in our online shop.
Trotec. We are here to help.
